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Many plans designed to deal with climate change depend on the use of clean energy from the sun, or solar power.
许多旨在应对气候变化的计划都依赖于使用清洁能源太阳能。
But the equipment necessary for solar power sometimes gets damaged or wears out.
但太阳能发电所需的设备有时会磨损。
These solar panels often end up as waste in landfills.
这些太阳能电池板通常最终会被当作垃圾填埋。
A business based in Yuma, Arizona, is trying to deal with what its founders call a tsunami of solar waste.
亚利桑那州尤马县的一家公司正试图处理其创始人所说的大量的太阳能垃圾。
The company is called We Recycle Solar.
这家公司名为“We Recycle Solar”。
Workers move large numbers of solar panels with special machines, then lift each out by hand to begin separating by maker and model.
工人们用特殊的机器移动大量太阳能电池板，然后用手把每块电池板拿出来，开始按制造商和型号进行分离。
Some panels only have a few cracks in their glass.
有些电池板的玻璃上只有几道裂缝。
These panels can be reused, said company chief Adam Saghei.
公司负责人Adam Saghei说，这些太阳能电池板可以重复使用。
The panels that do not go to testing and resale instead go to a special area where glass, metals, and other materials with value are separated.
不进行测试和转售的电池板将会被放到一个特殊的区域，在那里玻璃、金属和其他有价值的材料被分开。
Solar panels are built to survive many years of bad weather, so it is difficult to take them apart.
制造出来的太阳能电池板可以承受多年的恶劣天气，所以很难拆卸它们。
Separating the glass without it breaking, for example, is difficult.
例如，在不打碎玻璃的情况下拆分是很困难的。
But We Recycle Solar uses special robotic devices that can do the work successfully.
但We Recycle Solar公司使用了特殊的机器人设备，这种设备可以成功地完成这项工作。
Some of the highest value materials in solar panels are copper, silver, aluminum, glass, and crystalline silicon.
太阳能电池板中价值最高的材料有铜、银、铝、玻璃和晶体硅。
For Saghei, the idea for the company came in 2017.
对于Saghei来说，成立这家公司的想法是在2017年产生的。
He was working in the computer electronic waste sector.
他当时在电脑电子垃圾部门工作。
He saw solar panels spread across roofs and wondered where the panels would go in the future.
他看到太阳能电池板遍布屋顶，想知道未来这些电池板会被放在哪里。
He said he realized that green technology does not stay green once it is no longer being used.
他说，他意识到，一旦绿色技术不再被使用，它就不会一直保持绿色。
Copper is one metal the recycling process produces, said Dwight Clark, director of recycling technology at We Recycle Solar.
We Recycle Solar公司的回收技术主管德怀特·克拉克说，铜是回收过程中产生的一种金属。
Clark said there is not a lot of copper in each solar panel.
克拉克说，每个太阳能电池板中铜的含量并不多。
But when the company recycles around 4500 kilograms of solar panels in an hour, the company can get over a hundred kilograms of copper.
但当该公司在一小时内回收约4500公斤太阳能电池板时，该公司可以获得超过100公斤的铜。
By 2050, solar panel waste will total some 78 million tons worldwide, said Mool Gupta of the University of Virginia.
弗吉尼亚大学的穆尔·古普塔表示，到2050年，全球太阳能电池板垃圾总量将会达到约7800万吨。
The reason recycling and recovery is not very strong yet, Gupta said, is that companies do not want to pay the $30 per panel cost when it costs only $1 to send it to a landfill.
古普塔说，回收利用程度不够强的原因是，公司不想支付每个电池板30美元的成本，而把它送到垃圾填埋场只需要1美元。
Garvin Heath is a renewable energy expert at the U.S. Department of Energy.
加文·希思是美国能源部的可再生能源专家。
He said the cost to recycle should not be more than the cost to put solar panels in landfills.
他说，回收的成本不应该超过把太阳能电池板扔进垃圾填埋场的成本。
He said consumers should not have to pay anything and recycling businesses should not suffer financial losses.
他说，消费者不应该支付任何费用，回收企业也不应该遭受经济损失。
Other companies are starting to get into the business.
其他公司也开始涉足这项业务。
Solarcycle, a new company based in Odessa, Texas, raised $30 million earlier this year.
位于得克萨斯州敖德萨的新公司Solarcycle今年早些时候筹集了3000万美元。
And Solarpanelrecycling.com is connected to electronics recycler PowerHouse Recycling.
Solarpanelrecycling.com与电子产品回收商PowerHouse Recycling有联系。
The European Union has rules that require recycling of electronic waste under its Waste Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive (WEEE).
欧盟根据其报废的电子电气设备指令制定了要求回收电子垃圾的规定。
Market researcher Visiongain estimates the global market for solar panel recycling at $138 million for last year and growing fast.
市场研究机构Visiongain估计，去年全球太阳能电池板回收市场价值1.38亿美元，而且还在快速增长。
Jack Groppo of the University of Kentucky says people have to stop sending solar panels to the landfill as soon as possible.
肯塔基大学的杰克·格罗波说，人们必须尽快停止将太阳能电池板送到垃圾填埋场。
"Once the solar panels go into the landfill, they're gone unless we go back and mine the landfill," he said.
他说：“一旦太阳能电池板进入垃圾填埋场，它们就消失了，除非我们回去开采垃圾填埋场”。
Groppo estimates that in 20 years people will mine landfills to get valuable materials in the solar panels.
格罗波估计，在20年后，人们将会开采垃圾填埋场，以获取太阳能电池板中有价值的材料。
But he said it makes more sense to separate the panels at their retirement instead.
但他表示，在太阳能电池板“退休”时将其分开更有意义。
The Yuma facility can process 7,500 panels in a single day.
尤马工厂一天可以处理7500块太阳能电池板。
As of early June, it estimates more than 650,000 tons of carbon dioxide waste production have been avoided.
据估计，截至6月初，它已避免超过65万吨二氧化碳废物产生。
It is reusing about 60 percent of the panels that come in.
它回收利用了大约60%的太阳能电池板。
The company plans to open another recycling center next to a large solar manufacturer in the southeastern part of the country.
该公司计划在该国东南部一家大型太阳能制造商旁边开设另一家回收中心。
For now, solar recycling companies are still looking for a way to make money.
目前，太阳能回收公司仍在寻找赚钱的方法。
But Gupta said these profitability issues are temporary.
但古普塔表示，这些盈利问题是暂时的。
Researchers are hard at work on solving them, he said.
他说，研究人员正在努力解决这些问题。
He added, "Too many lives are lost to pollution and solar is one of the top solutions."
他补充说，“污染夺去了太多生命，而太阳能是最好的解决方案之一。”
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
